RAY OF HOPE: Australia Gears Up To Release Potential Covid-19 Vaccine By end of 2021

BY LYDIA AMUYA OMECH

MELBOURNE, Australia|SHIFTMEDIA| There is a ray of hope for the COVID 19 vaccine following the announcement early on Friday by the Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt that a potential Covid-19 vaccine is being developed by the University of Queensland.

Hunt said the vaccine would be available for all Australians in the third quarter of 2021.
He said the vaccine development was ahead of schedule and it was “doing its job”. The vaccine was found to produce virus-neutralising antibodies and had a substantial effect on the elderly, Hunt said.

“That is particularly so in the elderly, and that is an especially important outcome, given the global vulnerability to elderly…from Covid-19,” he told a press briefing.
Biotech firm CSL has completed the manufacturing of the vaccine candidate to allow the third stage of clinical trials to begin.

“Our national goal is to ensure that all Australians who seek to be vaccinated are vaccinated by the end of 2021,” said Hunt.

CSL Limited has signed a deal to supply the Australian government with 51 million doses of the vaccine once it’s proved to be effective.

CSL Limited has signed a deal to supply the Australian government with 51 million doses of the vaccine once it’s proved to be effective.

Brazil negotiates with Pfizer

meanwhile, The head of Pfizer Inc in Brazil said on Thursday the drugmaker is negotiating with the South American nation to supply its potential Covid-19 vaccine in the first quarter of 2021.

“We are working strongly with the Brazilian government to try to fast-track the availability (of the vaccine) in Brazil as fast as possible,” Carlos Murillo said during an online event.
In Brazil, some 3,100 people are participating in a late-stage clinical trial of the experimental vaccine Pfizer is developing with German partner BioNTech.

Pfizer earlier this week said initial data from its late-stage trials showed the vaccine to be more than 90 per cent effective, putting it in the lead among major pharmaceutical companies racing to develop a Covid-19 vaccine to help stop the pandemic. that has claimed over 1.2 million lives globally.

The vaccine, however, needs to be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius, a potential barrier in developing countries were finding the necessary storage chain could be an obstacle.

“It’s not a simple issue and it does not resolve the logistics, but it changes the paradigm that a country would need an ultra freezer in each vaccination center, that’s not the case,” Murillo said.

So far, Brazil’s federal government’s main bet for a potential coronavirus vaccine is with AstraZeneca Plc, with which it has already signed a supply contract.